The Caprilicious Jewellery Blog

Hello my lovely readers, thanks for coming back for your weekly look into the goings on at Caprilicious. It is a cold, wet January - but not as bad as it could have been. My thoughts are all in sunnier climes - in a few weeks I am off to see my family in India and although I am trying hard to keep a lid on it, little gurgles of excitement escape me at unexpected moments, reminding me that although I have lived and worked in the UK for ages and ages, a piece of my heart is firmly rooted in India.The colours, sounds and smells of India beckon me - and I always respond with a quickening of the pulse. Sometimes the reality doesn't live up to my expectations and I get a bit grumpy - no one likes change or disappointment, but hey, you can't have it all!

It is that time of year again, to display my art and wait to see how it will be received. I hope to meet a lot of you and your friends there - do come and talk to me.

This week has been all about supporting the junior doctors in their strike action and making sure the hospital was staffed safely for the patients. Mike went to the supermarket and took the juniors a load of carbohydrates to keep their inner fires stoked as it was a bitterly cold and rainy day out there on the picket line outside the hospital.

The Evolution of the FrankenButterfly

Last week I talked about my polymer clay "Frankenbutterfly" cane. Here are some pictures of how it evolved. I put all the components together, let it rest for a while, reduced it in size, and gasped as it began to look like nothing on earth! I held my nerve and my breath and cut it in half and.....exhale! There it was, my Frankenbutterfly.

The clip above is from The Young Frankenstein - it is a classic film made in 1974 by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, and if you haven't seen it, it is one you should not miss, do look out for it, I guarantee you loads of laughs.

Lhasa

Lhasa, or The Place of the Gods is the administrative capital of what is now the "Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China". It is the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau and, at an altitude of nearly 12,000 ft, Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world. The inlaid brass beads in this necklace come from Tibetan vendors. Turquoise and red coral are much sought after in Tibet. They are at the opposite spectrums of colour and this is believed to enhance lives and bring good luck to the wearer. Tibetan turquoise is sought after by Nepalese and Tibetan people for its spiritual powers as well as its beauty.

The New Year Giveaway

I decided to run a New Year giveaway on the Caprilicious Facebook page and I put Pavo up as the prize. People had to like the necklace and say how or where they would wear it. The giveaway attracted around thirty five people - I assigned each one of them a number andput the numbers into a random number generator, and drew three numbers. The first number drawn was 16, which was assigned to Maggie Leitch Craig.If this lady does not get in touch I will contact the second lady on the random number list and then the third. I will also give all the ladies who cared to enter the giveaway a code, which they can apply to any purchase they make from Caprilicious for a couple of months. They are obviously sophisticated ladies who appreciate a nice piece of handmade jewellery and I am so pleased that they took the time to engage with the competition.

Thats a wrap for this week folks. I will catch you next week, same time, same place. Have a great week,​xx

Hello readers, by the time this edition of the blog hits your screens we will be well into boring old January, with all the fun and anticipation of the festive season behind us and only the wonders of a wet weekend to look forward to. At this time of year I generally try to spend some time taking stock of myself and my development in the past years, and to look back at the giants in my chosen art form.

This year I am mesmerised by the work of Professor Mary Lee Hu from Seattle who translates fibre arts and basket weaving into her work with wire. Having started with brass and finding that this worked, she now uses 18 and 22K gold in her beautiful jewellery. It is said that she takes a good half an hour to weave an inch of the jewellery she makes and when you see it, you will wonder why it doesn't take longer.

One day, one day, I promised myself - I can dream, can't I?? In the meanwhile as a pacifier, I took an online class from Sarah Thompson in the art of wire bracelet making.One of the projects in her class inspired me to turn my hand to a bit of twining myself. After all, I reasoned, the project called for eight shortish wires to be woven together - why not add just a couple more and make a 'slightly' more substantial, and a teeny weeny bit longer piece that I could turn into a necklace, incorporating a beautiful pink striped lampwork bead?

Sheesh! Did I just say just a couple more wires, and just a bit longer?? - I must have been out of my tiny mind! Toc! Toc! Toc!Here it is - I brought the wires together and split them up, twisting them as I did so and then back together again - There are sixteen wires in total in this piece, each one about two feet long, all bound together with fine wire - yes, Toc! Toc! Toc! indeed.

Oh, and by the way, I have to give my cat Charlie credit for part of the weave!

And Wilfred even very kindly agreed to model it for me when I needed to try it out.

Symphony

Giveaway

In the spirit of welcoming the New Year, I decided to host a giveaway on the Caprilicious Facebook page. The giveaway runs till the 15th of January. All you have to do is to head over to Facebook - follow the link above, like the picture of the necklace and tell me how or where you would wear it.

The FrankenButterfly

I did it, I did it, I managed to finish off all those old canes - they came from a series by Marie Segal, made three years ago. I ended up with a bunch of ring trays, a tutorial for ring bowls that I am yet to use and an empty box where I used to store all those canes.I woke up one morning with a vision - I saw a brightly coloured door number for our front door in polymer clay in my dreams. I jumped out of bed and drew my vision ( yes, I am now a certifiable Toc! Toc!) on the first piece of paper I could lay my hands on. It has a large butterfly in profile and a flower on the top of the number which is going to be made of all the canes I am going to repopulate my recently emptied box with.​ I spent a happy afternoon making the beginnings of a butterfly cane. This is the first time I have made something from my imagination armed with a load of images from the internet (not to mention my 'vision') so I have no idea what it will look like when it is reduced, but let's just wait and see - anyway, there's no waste with this fabulous medium. This insect is really a Franken butterfly as it is made from an amalgamation of at least 4 images, as if I have tried to improve on nature. As I only have time to work with clay at weekends, this is as far as I have got.

I shall make the other canes, one by one and then put them all together in my door furniture. Before this, I have to reduce this behemoth without distorting it.​ I'm not sure whether it ought to be a standalone number or part of a tile - d'you have any thoughts??

I will be back in Bangalore in February and running my exhibition at Raintree on the 12th and 13th of February - you are all invited, of course. Do come by and talk to me - I would love that. There's a lovely little cafe/patisserie just around the corner and we can have a cuppa if it is quiet.

Have a fabulous week and I'll catch you next week, same time, same place, Until then​xx

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I'm Neena Shilvock, and I'm crazily addicted to jewellery. I've been designing and making quirky and interesting statement necklaces for the last five years and my passion hasn't cooled off one little bit - in fact it has got worse, such that I'm even dreaming jewellery.I'd love to get to know kindred spirits like you, so drop me a line and I'll get back to you, and who knows, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship. Write to me at jewellerybycaprilicious(at)gmail.com

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I am very proud of my body of work and what people say about it, here are some of the compliments I have received

'Neena,the necklace has just arrived & I can't find enough of the right words to do it justice. Somehow "stunning" "gorgeous" "exquisite" don't seem to fit the bill! It's definitely a statement piece ..................' LJ

'Wow received my jewellery to day. Love them, so beautifully presented in a pretty green box and many thanks for gift of earrings, lovely, thanks :-)' AT

'Hi Neena, just been busy all week at a folk festival.....my Mme Butterfly drew lots of admiration, as did my Ice Queen and someone leaned over the counter in a store of healing and crystals and exclaimed at my beautiful lapis. I so enjoy wearing my pieces and the attention they receive. ' LB

' Neena, I can't describe how delighted I am with Scherezade - she is simply breathtaking.' EW